Gang in the UK treated migrant workers like slaves

A gang in the UK recruited migrant workers and then treated them as slaves, forcing them to live in dirty, terrifying conditions as they picked leeks that would finally be sold to Tesco and Waitrose. Gurdip Somal 52, was the boss, while his wife Manjinder 46, was the legitimate face of the gang.

Prosecutor Jonathan said that the case against the gang was in fact that they cruelly mistreated and criminally exploited these migrant workers.

The migrant workers came here because they thought they would have good wages, conditions and accommodation.
When they arrived it wasn’t like the gang promised, they were put to work in the leek fields, where many were intimidated, threatened and beaten.
Often the workers were knocked to the ground if they could not keep up the machine to collect the leeks.
Above all they were not given protective equipment so when the machine hit them, they were cut to the bone by the knives they used to trim the leeks, and suffered skin infections from acid in the leeks.

They went to the fields with overcrowded and dangerous minibuses and they had to work 12- or 13-hour a day without breaks. The gang also cheated them by paying them less than promised and deducting money from their wages.

After working 12/13-hour a day the workers went to their homes and there they were crammed with more than 20 workers into a three-bedroom terraced house with a single toilet that did not work.

Police and other authorities arrested the defendants in November 2008 as part of Operation Ruby, the biggest operation of its kind with purpose to chase the exploitation of migrant workers.

To my mind the workers were being treated as animals and below the standard. We all now that farming labour is not easy work, it is often very though. So I think the workers have to be treated in a human way. I don’t suggest that migrant workers should have been given easy jobs or put up in luxury accommodation. They just have to have a basic minimum, especially in the UK.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/gang-treated-migrant-workers-like-slaves-2153614.html